


happiness is a warm puppy

by rocoroloco (wafumayo)



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Animal Transformation, Fluff, Friendship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-18
Updated: 2020-07-18
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:13:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25351432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wafumayo/pseuds/rocoroloco
Summary: Even without the bright red crow’s mask on his face, those dark red eyes are unmistakable, and he can’t help but ask “Crow?” in a strangled voice.“Crow?” He hears it echoed around him by the Phantom Thieves, with varying amounts of surprise and suspicion.The dog barks once, its tail wagging as he pants up at Joker.A freak cognition incident deep in Mementos turns Akechi into a dog, and Akira has a bit of a hard time keeping his hands to himself. He's not the only one having trouble with that, though.
Relationships: Akechi Goro/Amamiya Ren, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist
Comments: 13
Kudos: 143





	happiness is a warm puppy

**Author's Note:**

> You could say that there is a plot hole in how Phantom Thieves outfits work but I didn't want to think up an entire explanation for how this would work. I just wanted an excuse to turn Akechi into a dog.
> 
> Title is a quote from Charles M. Schulz.
> 
> Edit 07/19: Minor mistakes in wording, grammar, etc.
> 
> [I'm not 100 percent sure how Tuggi made shiba!goro even more adorable but she did!!! Look at the boy!!!](https://twitter.com/JustTuggi/status/1284611424212471809)

It was through Futaba, of course, that Ren first knew about the online trend of photoshopping animal ears and tails onto pictures of Akechi. It seemed to have started innocently enough, with one or two preteen fan accounts excitedly tweeting their pictures of “If Akechi-kun was an animal! ><” The edits looked amateurish at best. But soon, it became a trending topic and hashtag on SNS and it seemed that one couldn’t search up “Akechi Goro” without at least two of the top results being a fan-made edit. 

Twitter and Instagram were inundated with doctored photos of the second Detective Prince sporting animal parts ranging from the mundane beagle’s to the outlandish kangaroo’s. It seemed that everyone wanted in on the action for a sliver of online clout, whether they were actually fans of Akechi or not. The majority of the fans seemed to agree on “dog” suiting Akechi the most though, if Ren’s many searches proved anything.

Of course, Futaba hadn’t told Ren exclusively. She’d dropped into the Phantom Thieves’ groupchat - the one with Akechi, even - what felt like hundreds of pictures of Akechi photoshopped to have shiba inu ears and tails. 

> **Futaba:** This you? >:3c
> 
> **Ryuji:** lolol wtf did you make these?
> 
> **Futaba:** they’re from online
> 
> **Yusuke:** How marvelous! The seamless way that the ears meld into the hair and the way that different angles are accounted for...
> 
> **Ann:** So cute!
> 
> **Akechi:** Haha.
> 
> **Yusuke:** Truly artistic. 
> 
> **Haru:** Akechi-kun, you look really good like this!
> 
> **Yusuke:** I’m feeling quite inspired. Akechi, would you mind modeling for me one day?
> 
> **Futaba:** *eyes emoji*
> 
> **Ryuji:** wtf
> 
> **Akechi:** Haha. I’ll have to see my schedule. 
> 
> **Yusuke:** I’m always free. 

Ren had followed the conversation with a fond smile on his face before his phone buzzed with a new notification from his private conversation with Futaba. 

> **Futaba:** Real quiet, aren’t you, leader?
> 
> **Ren:** Nothing really to say. Makoto’s not saying anything either.
> 
> **Futaba:** Yeah, I don’t think Makoto’s being silent for the same reason as you
> 
> **Ren:**? Wym?
> 
> **Futaba:** Hmmmmm you rly don’t know?
> 
> **Futaba:** HMMMMMMMMM

Ren waited to see if Futaba would follow it up but after a minute without the telltale three dots popping up, he flicked back to the group chat, where the conversation had somehow moved onto talking about what animals the other members of the group would be. 

He didn’t really want to spoil the fun, but they’d been traversing through Sae’s cognitive world for a week straight now, and Makoto’s expressions had gotten stonier and stonier each subsequent visit, until not even Haru’s gentle encouragements could get Makoto to smile and relax. A destressing trip to Mementos to handle the backlog of requests from the Phan-Site was, in Ren’s opinion, just what they needed to unwind a little before...well.

> **Ann:** Haru would definitely be a sheep!
> 
> **Haru:** Hehe, really?
> 
> **Ren:** Remember that we’re meeting later for Mementos, okay?
> 
> **Makoto:** Alright.
> 
> **Ann:** Yup! At 6 o’clock, right? See you then~

The cold yet muggy air of Mementos is one that Ren has never been able to get used to, no matter how many treks into the Metaverse he makes. At this point, though, he’s able to suss out the different possibilities of changes when it comes to changes. Lots of people sneezing on the train? Chances are, the Shadows are going to be weak and groggy. The weather is as hot and humid as a rainforest? Joker better be prepared to cast a lot of bufu, with Fox right next to him on the frontlines. 

He’s never been used to more abstract changes, though - usually when it comes to things involving Morgana. If people’s collective cognition of catbuses thanks to Ghibli allows Morgana to turn into a bus, then shouldn’t he technically be the toughest member in the party, due to the superstition around a cat’s nine lives? He never thought that celebrities and the like would be affected so much by cognition, considering Panther’s outfit never melts away into a swimsuit even though Takamaki Ann just had a photoshoot featuring copious amounts of bikini.

Maybe there’s just something special about Akechi Goro. 

Maybe Ren is trying his best to distract himself from the very real problem of how said Akechi Goro disappeared in a puff of smoke right as soon as they entered Mementos and when the smoke was cleared after copious amount of waving from the Phantom Thieves, they found themselves face-to-face with a dog rather than a detective.

The dog that greets Ren with a limp tail and pinned-back ears looks to be a shiba inu, about the height of Joker’s knees. The fur of the dog was oddly dark compared to the shiba inu that Ren sees around Yongen-Jaya at times, and familiar in the way that a half-forgotten dream is. Even without the bright red crow’s mask on his face, those dark red eyes are unmistakable, and he can’t help but ask “Crow?” in a strangled voice.

“Crow?” He hears it echoed around him by the Phantom Thieves, with varying amounts of surprise and suspicion. 

The dog barks once, its tail wagging as he pants up at Joker. 

Morgana shakes his head, looking more like a bobble-head than anything. “He...and I can’t believe I’m saying this...says ‘You’re right.’”

“You can understand him? For real?” Skull exclaims. He crouches down and rubs the dog’s head roughly, the yellow of his glove etching a sharp contrast against the dark brown of the dog’s fur. 

The dog growls, tail tucked low and showing his sharp white teeth, and Skull immediately backs off, his hands up in the air with surrender. “Whoa,” he laughs, “din’t need a translation for that one.”

“So it really is Crow?” 

Emboldened by Skull, the girls approach the dog - Crow - and surround him, crouching down to get closer and giving him pats all over his furry body. Queen coos about how soft Crow’s body is, while Navi laments the lack of usable phone cameras while they were inside Mementos. Panther has taken to crouching down right next to Crow’s head, clutching his neck in an uncomfortable-looking headlock and rubbing her cheek against his fur. Noir’s smile is barely hidden behind her hand, her position behind Crow meaning that she can easily reach out and play with his tail.

Crow’s tail wags and wags, less out of happiness and more to keep it out of Noir’s prying hand, it seems.

Joker feels his fingers twitch. Morgana’s fur is unbelievably soft, whenever the cat is in a good enough mood to allow hands on him, and he can’t help but wonder just how Crow’s fur would feel in his dog form. His hair usually looks as soft and smooth as silk; would the fur be like that, or a little rougher, perhaps?

“Since you still have a mask, can we assume that you have a Persona?” Fox asks from behind his finger-frames.

The girls back off and Crow gives himself a quick shake. He barks once and the mask fades into pale blue fire, revealing a surprisingly intelligent dog face from underneath, and he can see the telltale tubby form of Robin Hood behind him. 

Skull whistles, low and long. “Damn, I would’ve thought that you'd get a dog persona since you’re a dog now.”

“Mona’s a cat and he doesn’t have a cat Persona,” Joker points out.

“I’m not a cat!” Mona yells angrily and Crow barks furiously, a low growl starting to build in his throat as his ears pin back against his skull. “Crow says he’s not a dog, either,” Mona translates, sounding ridiculously proud of his ability to understand Crow in his dog form.

Skull backs off once more, raising his hands in a surrender pose just like earlier. “Man, you’re meaner now that you’re a dog.”

Crow barks several times. “He’s finding it hard to control the way the dog body reacts to his emotions,” Mona translates immediately. 

“If you can use a Persona, you can fight, yes?” Queen asks.

Crow nods once and barks twice, puffing out his chest proudly with his head held high. Despite the advanced dog hearing he must possess now, he doesn’t seem to hear or want to acknowledge the adoring coos of Noir and Navi. 

They look to Joker and Joker looks down at Crow, whose tail starts wagging so hard that Joker can feel the wind of it ruffling his coat. There’s an eagerness to Crow that echoes the amount of energy he must have wanted to work off in Mementos before this odd incident occurred. To be honest, if Crow’s able to use Robin Hood, then it should be fine, especially if the other Phantom Thieves were willing to play a little extra support around him.

“All right,” Joker nods, “then we fulfill the requests today. But we take it easy, and Crow is going to be on support the whole time.”

The going is good, despite the early hiccup and constant distractions of the girls hogging Crow in the backseat of the Monabus, giving him ear scritches and head pats every once in a while. Joker can see from the side window how utterly miserable Crow looks the whole time, his tail limp and low, and constant low woofs emanating from his muzzle. The girls either don’t care or don’t realize, fondly rubbing their hands all over his fur. The team is serious enough when it comes to fighting against the Shadows that try to jump them as they make their way through Mementos, as well as against the Shadow bosses for their requests, that Joker never finds an excuse to ask them to get back on track. 

Crow’s helpful with the kougaon and eigaon he sends towards Shadows with Robin Hood, but Crow’s never been the best when it comes to conserving energy and summoning his Persona multiple times a Metaverse run. Being turned into a dog shook him up so much he could only summon Robin Hood four or five times before he was too tired to even call Robin Hood to shoot his bow, instead relying on his teeth and claws, with limited success.

“Alright, we should take a break and then leave for the day,” Queen says with a clap of her hands, and the Phantom Thieves trace their steps back up to a rest stop on a higher floor. “We got a lot done today, even with one member down.”

A whine sounds from Crow, so sad and pitiful that Mona didn’t even need to translate it before the Noir, Navi, and Panther rushed over to the dog detective, giving him lots and lots of pets in a misguided attempt to make him feel a little better.

By this point, even Skull and Fox have joined in on the fun, with Skull giving Crow a tackling hug that ends up with Crow’s ears tilted back and his paw bracing his and Skull’s entire weights so that they don’t go crashing down on the ground. Skull isn’t content with just a hug though, running his hands all over Crow’s fur until the formerly well-groomed brown fur was a mess that not even Joker could bear to look at. 

“Bro, he’s so soft!” Skull yells excitedly, a huge and expectant smile on his face as he grins up at Joker, who hesitates in response.

The entire hours-long trek in Mementos, listening to all the other Thieves go on and on about Crow while the older teen (dog, now) stayed quiet and stiff, had been an ordeal in patience and discipline, holding himself back from wanting to throw his arms around Crow by giving the pleather of the Monabus’s seat several extra longing pats. 

There was something a little odd about the way that everyone grabbed Crow and ruffled him around in a way they would never do to Akechi in his human form. The disgruntled and despondent glare in Crow’s eyes whenever someone else walked up to him and manhandled him into a hold was a little hard to perceive, but Joker was anything but inattentive. He had said less and less the more it happened, until he was basically mute, to the point that Joker wonders if the Phantom Thieves even remember that the dog is actually a former human and incidentally the person who plans to betray them and turn them in to the police. 

He walks over to Crow and crouches down, holding the unimpressed gaze with a steady smile. “Is it OK if I give you a hug?”

“Just grab ‘im, dude,” Skull says, freeing Crow from his grip. 

Crow nods, his tail starting to wag.

“Can you give me a verbal response?” Joker asks.

Crow shifts from paw to paw, and woofs. 

“He says yes,” Mona translates. 

“Ah, he speaks!” Navi exclaims, but Joker ignores her, though Crow gives her a sharp look and the start of a menacing growl.

Joker moves forward until his cheek is pressed against Crow’s fuzzy one, and he envelopes the warm body with his arms. Crow stops growling immediately and stiffens up cold, until Joker’s ear’s close proximity to his snout became the only indicator that Crow hadn’t been petrified into stone.

It’s nothing at all like he imagined hugging Akechi. Crow is much softer and smaller now, for one, Joker needing to crouch on his knees just so he could hold onto the dog. The body heat is higher than the minute brushes he’s had with the back of Akechi’s bare hand during the summer, or when they’re pressed next to each other in Jazz Jin. The short fur prickles slightly against his skin, and the sunny animal smell is nothing like the cologne that seems to have permeated Akechi’s skin with how often he seems to spray himself with it. It feels great - warm and soft - in a way that is similar to when Ren gives Morgana pats during the cat's good moods, but the affection rising in his chest as he clutches Crow close to his body is one that’s completely foreign. 

The dog holds himself stiffly but his tail is wagging so hard that the breeze from them ruffles Joker’s bangs. He pats Crow’s head and the back of his neck in an effort to help him relax a little. He pushes down to try and force Crow’s head to drop onto his shoulder, but the dog refuses to do so, the corded neck muscles bunching up under Joker’s hands to fight against him. A whine starts in Crow’s throat, the sound high and distressed.

Claws scrabbling for purchase on the concrete floor, Crow backs away to escape and Joker lets him, his arms dropping to the side immediately. If Crow was human, Joker thinks that he would be blushing, based on the way Crow immediately averts his eyes to stare at the ground rather than the rest of them.

He starts barking and Mona translates dutifully for him, “He says he’s sorry about his reactions to Joker and the others. The nose is really sensitive and no one here’s showered yet.”

Panther stomps her foot on the ground, the red of her face visible even under her crimson mask. “Mona, that’s insensitive!”

Mona’s eyes widen in shock and he is visibly shaken up as he stammers, “P-Panther, that wasn’t me! I was just repeating what Crow said!”

Queen crosses her arms and huffs, “You certainly seemed happy to be hugged by Joker despite him being just as smelly as us.”

“I’m not smelly,” Joker protests at the same time Panther shouts Queen’s name in embarrassment.

Joker plays with his fringe, feeling intensely awkward by the way that the Thieves have started to look between him and Crow, whose tail whirls like the blades of a helicopter every time he glances Joker’s way. Navi tries to hold it still, whether out of pity for Crow or just to bury her fingers in the soft fluff, but her attempts are fruitless as Crow’s tail continues to whirr. 

“We’re rested enough, aren’t we?” Fox says, his tone calm and cool. Joker wonders if he even noticed any of what had happened with Crow just now; Fox had spent the entire time engrossed in his sketchbook, seemingly wanting to immortalize the proud visage of shiba inu Crow before they left. “Let’s leave before night falls. I do not quite wish to have to walk all the way back to the dorms in the cold.”

“Dude, I’ll lend you some money to buy a ticket,” Skull sighs but he heaves himself back up to his feet. Mona scurries to the tracks and in a poof, he transforms into the Monabus again. Joker sits in the passenger seat and this time, instead of sitting at the back, Crow follows and flops himself down in Joker’s lap.

“Aw,” Noir sighs, “I wanted to see what he would look like with a scarf.”

Joker feels a tremble run through Crow’s body at that and he runs his gloves through the soft fur. The tail starts wagging again, and Crow woofs softly in response. Whatever he said must’ve been either too offensive or too inconsequential because Mona doesn’t bother translating it, choosing instead to focus on driving up through Mementos until they reached the entrance once more.

“What’ll you do if you don’t go back to human after we leave?” Navi asks Crow as they start piling out of the Monabus.

Crow barks. “He says he’ll figure something out,” Mona translates.

“You can stay with me,” Joker offers, “since Leblanc already has an animal to take care of. We’re sort of used to it.”

“Who’re you calling an animal?” Mona demands, as Crow barks furiously. Skull winces at the cacophony. 

Queen removes her mask to massage the bridge of her nose, her expression pinched at the noise. “Look, we can discuss it once we leave Mementos.”

They leave Mementos, the cold winter air of Shibuya a welcome balm on Akira’s face after the humid pressure of the Metaverse. To his relief, he finds himself standing next to a familiar gloved teen rather than a dog.

“Aw man, you turned back into a human. Boring.” Futaba blows a raspberry.

Akechi’s usual polite smile turns a smidge sheepish as he fiddles with the ends of his hair. “I apologize for the trouble I caused in Mementos.”

“Don’t apologize, Akechi-kun!” Haru giggles, looking absolutely tickled; no doubt she’s thinking back on the masked shiba inu. “It made for quite the exciting trip.”

Akechi’s smile looks minutely more strained at that, but thankfully the Phantom Thieves are too tired to continue poking fun at him, breaking off into chattering groups after loudly saying their farewells. Futaba gives Ren a knowing look before scooping up Morgana, who immediately protests at the manhandling, and ambling off after Ryuji and Yusuke back down towards the subway.

That they were conspiring to give Ren and Akechi some alone time wasn’t lost on either of them. Akechi shifts from foot to foot self-consciously, looking uncomfortable in Ren’s presence and so, feeling a little bad for him, Ren reaches out and ruffles his hair.

“H-hey!” Akechi pulls back with a blush and a pout on his face. It makes him look much younger than his actual age. “I’m not a dog anymore, you know.”

Ren smiles and continues ruffling his hair, painfully reminded of a time not so long ago, when they were sitting across from each other at a café in Kichijoji. When the biggest headache Akechi ever gave him was wondering if Akechi would want a bracelet or a desk cactus. 

Wonders if they can ever go back to that, after all is said and done.

Akechi cocks his head to the side, displacing Ren’s hand from his head. “Amamiya-kun?”

Ren gives him his best shit-eating grin and nudges his shoulder. “You really warmed me up down in Mementos with your fur. I was hoping you could warm me up tonight in Leblanc?”

The flush on Akechi’s face matches the one that had been on Panther's, and Akechi punches Ren playfully on the shoulder, though the force of it was still enough to knock him back several steps. The warmth from Crow’s dog body seeping into him through the Thieves’ outfit had been comforting, but he doubts that the warm fuzzy feeling he got from that was just due to the fur.

**Author's Note:**

> My Twitter is [wafumayo](https://twitter.com/wafumayo)


End file.
